It happened again: a college basketball team walked off the court without shaking hands with their opponents. When we last witnessed such a scene, with Iowa walking off all sad and offended against North Dakota in December, I called it the worst insult in sports. I was wrong. It was actually pretty funny, in a school-yard,”dude, you’re really not going to talk to me?” sort of way.
What happened on Tuesday night was even funnier.
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It all went down over in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference at the end of Siena’s 78-68 victory over Rider. Right at the end of the game, a Siena player was fouled on an alley-oop attempt, as occasionally happens in the game of basketball. It was certainly not the hardest foul ever committed. But rather than just get up and head to the locker room, the players started to get into it, and suddenly all hell broke loose. A couple quick punches were thrown, and then the coaches decided to take on each other.
After things calmed down a bit, Rider head coach Kevin Baggett took his team directly to the locker room. No handshake! But don’t call Jimmy Patsos, Siena’s head coach, a poor sport. Dude went right down the line shaking hands just like he always does, never mind that nobody was there to shake back.
